


Remembrance and Respects

by Ciasquare



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:04:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5281370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciasquare/pseuds/Ciasquare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Itachi visits the resting places of Shisui and Kisame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Uchiha Shisui

Itachi locks the door behind him and pauses for a moment on the doorstep. The village is deafeningly quiet, every house still dark as the people inside slept. The moon shines dimly towards the end of the night sky, like it is going to give way to the sun any moment. He takes a deep breath, the hand holding the flowers clenching weakly, shaking a few loose leaves to the ground. A light breeze gently ruffles his hair as Itachi starts for the edge of Konoha. 

The gravestones and monuments stare as Itachi passes the burial yard. Every single grotesquely beautiful one reflects the moonlight, making even the roughly hewn memorials look like polished silver. He would stop to visit, but duty is not what compels him to come by tonight. 

Like an afterthought, Itachi lets one of the roses drop by the gate. 

The Nakano River looks splendid even at night, gleaming clear like fluid diamond, endlessly rushing. The water claps weakly against the banks. Itachi crouches and dips his hand into the river, wincing at the cold. Drawing himself up, he one handedly shrugs off his robes and steps in with a grimace, wading cautiously towards the middle. 

At this time of year, the river is shallow and the currents weak, the springtime rains long past. Even so, Itachi is careful to keep his feet firmly on the rocky riverbed, hands switching turns to hold the roses as the other grips a white-knuckled hold on the tall, moss covered rocks. 

There was never any body to be found, but in Itachi’s memory, the river ran blood red for weeks and even the stones reflected a rusty hue. Now as he stands in the middle of the temperamental river, he imagines the stones beneath his feet slick with blood and the rushing of the river as loud as a thunderstorm. Shisui’s body, bloated and palely translucent, waits at the end like a nightmare. Everything is burned into his memory, because even in the pain that accompanied his Eternal Mangyeko, he couldn’t close his eyes. 

He lets go of the roses, watching them float down the river, some bobbing above the water and some swallowed by languid current. 

By the time the last flower floats out of his red tinged sight, Itachi is shivering uncontrollably and the sun is rising. He makes his way back to the riverbank, with unfeeling hands and numb feet, crawling out onto the grass. 

He lies there for another eternity; face down in the ground in his now wet robes while the sun comes up over the cruel Nakano River.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a larger work that I'm still working on. I hope I'll be able to complete soon, but to help with the understanding of this, here is a summary of the plot.
> 
> The massacre doesn't happen, but Itachi's parents are exposed as instigators of the rebellion and are executed. Itachi and Shisui, now seen by the Uchiha village as betrayers, are exiled from the village. The two of them proceed to raise Sasuke together, taking missions alternately to bring money to the household and also leaving one of them at home to look after Sasuke. However, while Shisui is on a mission, things go terribly wrong and he loses his left eye. Feeling like he is no longer to protect Konoha, he suicides.
> 
> This is Itachi visiting the resting place of Shisui.


	2. Hoshigaki Kisame

Itachi does not wait uselessly the day he sets off for the ocean. He packs his bag with ruthless efficiency and by daybreak he is out of Konoha. The ocean is two days’ travel – one day if he does not rest. He is shirking duties to take this trip so no further delay should be allowed. 

The trees rustle in welcome as he jumps from branch to branch, but the sound is tinged with sadness. Itachi knows the whistling silence like an unwelcome friend. Even after so long, he still expects a heavy thump to accompany his leaps, and the lack of that… hurts. He has come this way so often. These years he goes once annually, but it used to be more, before. 

They would rest at a plain, just a little before the ocean, both of them pushing themselves to the brink of exhaustion. The ocean, with its restlessness and mist called out invitingly and neither one could resist its call. Itachi didn’t care so much, but back then he was caught up in the enthusiasm, the energy, so wild it enveloped him and pulled him along. When they were together, it was always warm. Even when they reached the campsite – then shrouded in by trees – and they did not dare to make a fire, it was always warm. 

Now it is cold. The autumn chill is coming in together with the wind. It eats at his bones and pulls at his dry skin. Itachi misses so fiercely that the wind passes through his soul. 

He reaches the beach by sunset, kicking up the sand with his sandals as he leisurely strolls across. The waters here are shark-infested, which was more or less the sole reason why they visited so often. People seldom came to this beach, too terrified of the sharks to even play on the sands. Even as he watches the setting sun, a gray fin surfaces, cutting through the water like a dull knife. 

The sky looks like it was set on fire, clouds catching that fiery gold glow, even the ones high above the horizon. He climbs onto the pier and sits on the far edge, legs dangling meters from the water. He stares at the sun slowly dip below the line that joined sea and sky, uncaring of the sharks that circle around his feet.

Itachi takes in a deep breath, resolve lining the stiffness of his shoulders and straightness of his back. With trembling hands, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a few pitiful roses, crumpled and wilting from the journey. He drops them down into the ocean one by one, watching them meet the ocean lightly, like a kiss.

There’s a loud splashing and snapping as one of the sharks violently snaps up one of the roses. Itachi flies to his feet, eyes flashing with barely repressed fury, but the anger floods out him as soon as it had rushed in.

He watches with tears in his eyes as the very same shark breaks out of the circle and swims purposefully towards the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this, Itachi meets Kisame, a new recruit in Konoha's army. They go on various missions together, and become closer as friends. Kisame eventually becomes really important to the exiled Uchiha family as well. But Kisame is actually a double agent for Kirigakure and betrays Konoha. Itachi, enraged, hunts him down to end him. However, in the battle between them, Kisame chooses to end his life in preference to actually fighting Itachi.
> 
> This is Itachi visiting the resting place of Kisame.


End file.
